Perelman School of Medicine Assistant Professor of Psychology and LDI Senior Fellow Rinad Beidas has received the 2015 President’s New Researcher Award of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT).

The annual ABCT award honors an early program of research that advances scientific approaches to the understanding and improvement of human functioning through the investigation and application of behavioral, cognitive and other evidence-based principles for the assessment, prevention, treatment of mental health problems.

Psychology science
Headquartered in New York City, the ABCT is a 49-year-old national professional organization focused on the science of psychology.

Beidas, PhD, has focused her research program on the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based mental health practices for children and young adults in community settings.

She is particularly interested in training community clinicians in evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and understanding how those therapists and organizations can best be supported in those implementation efforts.

Children and young adults
She is co-editor of the recent textbook, “Dissemination and Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in Child and Adolescent Mental Health” and her latest paper is entitled “Clearing Hurdles: The Challenges of Implementation of Mental Health Evidence-Based Practices in Under-Resourced Schools.”

Beidas received her doctorate degree from Temple University in 2011 and joined the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine in 2012. Earlier this year she was appointed Director of Implementation Research at Penn’s Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research.